Category Archives: Stupidity

Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali terror group, issues statement as Indonesia and Malaysia agree to ‘shelter’ stranded migrants for one year

Rohingya migrants sit in a boat as they’re towed closer to land by fishermen off the coast near the city of Geulumpang in Indonesia’s East Aceh district Photo: Januar/AFP

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney, and AFP

Al-Shabaab jihadists have called on southeast Asia’s Muslims to come to the aid of Burmese migrants persecuted “at the hands of the savage Buddhists”.

In a rare statement on an issue outside of the Horn of Africa region, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali jihadist group told Muslims in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to “take the pivotal role in alleviating the suffering of the Muslims in Myanmar”.

“At the hands of the savage Buddhists, thousands of Muslims, including many women and children, have fled their homes and are desperately trying to reach the shores of safety, their only crime being their adherence to Islam,” the Islamist group said.

“Take matters into your own hands, help your Muslim brothers and know that this is a religious obligation upon you for which you will be held fully accountable in front of Allah on the day of judgement”.

“Welcome them, open your hearts to them before you open your homes and give shelter to the fleeing Muslims. Mobilise men, money and resources to defend the honour of the persecuted Muslims and repel the savage attacks of the polytheists.”

The statement came as Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to provide “temporary shelter” to thousands of migrants stranded at sea, on condition that the international community resettles them within a year.

As a further 400 starving migrants arrived in Indonesia after being rescued by local fishermen, the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Malaysia said they had reached the agreement, which marks the first step towards ending a regional crisis that has left the ocean scattered with overcrowded boats labelled “floating coffins”.

Anifah Aman, Malaysia’s foreign minister, said the two countries “agreed to provide them temporary shelter provided that the resettlement and repatriation process will be done in one year by the international community”.

Acehnese fishermen, right, tow a boat with Rohingya migrants off the coast of Geulumpang (AP)

“Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those 7,000 irregular migrants at sea,” he said.

Mr Anifah said Malaysia and Indonesia “invite other countries in the region to join in this endeavour”.

Speaking before the meeting, Retno Marsudi, Indonesia’s foreign minister, said: “This irregular migration is not the problem of one or two nations. This is a regional problem which also happens in other places. This is also a global problem.”

Many of the migrants in southeast Asia are Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar and have been branded one of the world’s most persecuted peoples by the UN. Others are from Bangladesh and have sought to escape poverty.

International news agency Associated Press (AP) has been accused of anti-Israel bias before, but this time the agency has surpassed even itself in reporting the Jerusalem terror attack in which 3-month-old Chaya Zisel Braun was murdered.

Its headline reporting the attack was “Israeli Police Shoot Man in East Jerusalem”, referring to the terrorist (!) who was driving the car that drove into people waiting at a lightrail station. The original article (later changed), began with the words: “Israeli police say they have shot a man whose car slammed into a crowded train stop in east Jerusalem, in what they suspect was an intentional attack”.

Jerusalem Post writer Lahav Harkov reacted to the disgusting headline on Twitter: “An infant was killed and eight people injured, two of them critically, but the AP headline is ‘Israeli Police Shoot Man in East Jerusalem'”.

Harkov’s criticism spread rapidly on social media and the news agency changed its headline a bit to “A Car hit a Train Station in East Jerusalem”. This biased headline was also severely criticized by browsers. Within an hour, the agency changed its headline (and the beginning of the article) once again to ““Palestinian Kills Baby at Jerusalem Station.”

AP is the most powerful news agency in the world, especially when it comes to reports from the Middle East. The information it sends out is reported word for word on thousands of media locations and reaches millions of online readers worldwide.

Recently, a former senior writer at AP, Matti Friedman,wrote that the agency has an ideological axe to grind and that its reports are routinely anti-Israel. “It is almost impossible to post anything negative about the Palestinians, and one must remember that this is the media source that provides, among other things, photos to about 10,000 media outlets worldwide. It censorship has enormous effect,” he said in an interview for Makor Rishon, following an article in Tablet that went viral, .

AP is not the only one attacked on social media for false reporting. The New York Times, which some call the most important newspaper in the world, reported: “Driver Plows Into Group at Jerusalem Train Station, Killing Baby, Police Say”.

On the front page of the printed edition, the attack wasn’t even mentioned and the internet edition stayed unchanged. Judy Rudoren, NY Times Jerusalem bureau chief, tweeted the headline and was heavily criticized by users including reporters from Israeli and international media. Haaretz reporter Barak Ravid replied to Rudoren: “This is a weird headline that takes the incident out of context and presents it as a road accident.”

Channel 10’s Moav Vardi added sarcastically: “It’s not certain that the driver killed the infant – that is just the police version.”

And the spokesperson at Israel’s UK Embassy in London, Yiftach Curiel, tweeted: “It’s better than the Telegraph‘s headline, which said : ‘A three year old infant died in a ‘terror’ incident (quotations marks in the original)'”

Qasim Rashid begins his attack on our American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) ads against Islamic anti-Semitism by stating: “New bus ads in DC say the Qu’ran [sic] promotes Jew-hatred. It’s a meritless, dangerous accusation.” He even claims that “Islamophobes are fabricating the myth that Islam promotes Jew-hatred by taking out ads on D.C. buses.”

It’s “Islamophobes” who are “fabricating the myth that Islam promotes Jew-hatred”? How odd, then, that so many Muslims have bought into that “myth,” including Hamas lawmaker Yunis Al-Astal, who recently declared that the Qur’an directs Muslims to “massacre” Jews; and Senior Palestinian Authority official Abbas Zaki, who said in March: “I believe that Allah will gather [the Jews] so we can kill them.”

Rashid, however, appears more interested in defaming us rather than really combating this Islamic anti-Semitism, as he characterizes our ad as “promoting pictures of Adolf Hitler,” as if we were pro-Nazi, when what it actually depicts is the Mufti of Jerusalem, one of the world’s foremost Muslim leaders of that time, meeting with Hitler.

Likewise disingenuous is Rashid’s claim that “nothing in the Qur’an or in Prophet Muhammad’s example supports the myth of ‘Islamic Jew hatred.’” He discusses two Qur’an verses at length, purporting to prove that they aren’t as anti-Semitic as they appear. But he ignores others that are much worse than the ones he discusses, such as 3:181-182, which excoriates the Jews for “slaying of prophets against all right” and says they are bound for hellfire; 5:51, which tells Muslims: “Do not take the Jews and the Christians for your allies”; 5:64, which says that the Jews are “rejected” by God; 5:82, which says that “of all people, the most hostile to those who believe are the Jews”; 9:29, which tells Muslims to fight against the “People of the Book” (Jews and Christians) “until they pay the jizya [poll tax] with willing submission and feel themselves subdued”; and 9:30, which claims that “the Jews say, ‘Ezra is God’s son’” and exclaims: “May God destroy them!” And there are others also.

Rashid claims that “far from ‘Jew hatred,’ the Qur’an 2:63 repeatedly declares that the Jews shall attain eternal paradise.” However, the two most popular English translators of the Qur’an, Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, as well as Muhammad Asad, translator of the allegedly “moderate” Qur’an that the Council on American-Islamic Relations is giving away for free, all feel it necessary to add parenthetical glosses that make the passage mean that Jews and Christians will be saved only if they become Muslims. And according to Ibn Abbas, the cousin of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, this verse was abrogated by Qur’an 3:85: “If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good).” Also, Qur’an 98:6, which says that Jews who do not accept Muhammad as a prophet and become Muslims are “the most vile of created beings.”

Rashid spends a great deal of time excoriating Christian anti-Semitism, and it rightly should be excoriated; however, it is not Christians who are responsible for the sharp recent rise in anti-Semitism in post-Christian Europe; it is that continent’s rapidly increasing number of Muslims. Yet while noting that “anti-Semitism is a worldwide epidemic,” Rashid ignores the fact that its highest levels are found in Muslim countries.

Most dishonestly of all, Rashid claims that “per Islamic teaching, Prophet Muhammad treated Jews as equals and with compassion.” He doesn’t mention that Muhammad exiled two of the three Jewish tribes he found in Medina and massacred the third, and then massacred the exiles at the oasis of Khaybar in northern Arabia, giving rise to the chant that jihadis repeat even today: “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.” Rashid claims to want to “root out anti-Semitism wherever it exists,” and yet he criticizes our ads for focusing on one of its primary sources. Does he really want to stop Islamic anti-Semitism, or allow it to grow and fester while the larger population remains ignorant and complacent about it? If he is sincere in his opposition to it, I hope he will drop his wrongheaded and defamatory opposition to our ads and join us in fighting this growing scourge.Robert Spencer